Halima Afi Cassells

Halima Afi Cassells (b. 1981) is an award-winning interdisciplinary community-engaged artist, facilitator, mom of three, avid gardener, with deep roots in Waawiiyaataanong/ Detroit, MI.

She credits gardening as inspiring her move away from painting to a practice where she aspires to use natural and upcycled materials and processes that lend to the thriving of all (human and non-human) communities. Halima continues to explore relationship-building, and the notions of freedom and work, value and disposability in a participatory context through her work. Community as at the heart of her work. Named as a 2023 Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellow for Interdisciplinary Arts, she has also been awarded grants from: Panta Rhea Foundation, BulkSpace, Art Matters, Culture Source, Knight Foundation Arts Challenge, WDET, Artplace America and Seed+Bloom Detroit. In addition to Detroit, her work has been featured in spaces in New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Oakland CA, Oaxaca, Berlin, Copenhagen, Bogota, and Harare.

Submitted by Buffalo Prescott